Joined: Mon December 3rd, 2007, 21:16 GMTPosts: 1086Location: Down by the banks of the Royal Canal.

Why doesn't he ever play that live? It would fit his voice now, spitting out short sentences, with a harmonnica "phiewww" underlining every chorus.

Anyway, I think this is a 'forgotten' masterpiece. The best dylanesque song about Jesus and the way his messages have been twisted and used and profitted on and misunderstood for all purposes. As far as I know inspired by his trip to Jerusalem.

It also has the mix between 'he' and 'I' and the mixed images from the past and the present that is so typical for his writings of that time.And it's so bitterly ANGRY. I miss that biting venom, sometimes, in his more recent works, although I suppose as an older man he's making peace and getting more tolerant, more inwardly orientated in general.

The lyrics on BobDylan.com has plenty of errors in it (I've corrected a few below). But here are the last verses, speaking, as I hear it, to the ghost of Jesus, as a good buddy, sharing his own experience, telling him what has happened since he was last here; both of them 'present' at the same funural...Bobby ends up in some kind of hope, "Your time will come! Let them have it!" Isn't this amazing writing??What do you think??

Well, they’ll choose a man for you to meet tonightYou’ll play the fool and learn how to walk through doorsHow to enter into the gates of paradiseAnd know how to carry a burden too heavy to be yoursYeah, from the stage they’ll be tryin’ to get water outa rocksA whore will pass the hat, collect a hundred grand and say thanksThey like to take all this money from sin, build big universities to study inSing “Amazing Grace” all the way to the Swiss banks!

Well, there ain’t no goin’ backWhen your foot of pride come downAin’t no goin’ back

They got some beautiful people out there, man!They can be a terror to your mind and show you how to hold your tongueThey got mystery written all over their foreheadThey kill babies in the crib and say, "only the good die young"They don’t believe in mercyJudgement on them is something that you’ll never seeThey can exalt you up or bring you down main routeTurn you into anything that they want you to be

Well, there ain’t no goin’ backWhen your foot of pride come downAin’t no goin’ back

Yes, I guess I loved him tooI can still see him in my mind climbin’ that hillDid he make it to the top, well he probably did and droppedStruck down by the strength of the willAin’t nothin’ left here partner, just the dust of a plaguethat has left this whole town afraidFrom now on, this’ll be where you’re fromLet the dead bury the dead. Your time will comeLet hot iron blow as he raised the shade

Probably my very favourite of all his 'What the hell does that mean?' songs. Also maybe the last studio recording in which he showed us just what a really great sense of rock'n'roll rhythm and phrasing he had (before he began his descent from the peak of his abilities in this respect). Did he make it to the top? Well, he probably did and dropped!

I never thought it was "and know" as written above (from BD.com??), I always thought it would be written like this:

Well, they’ll choose a man for you to meet tonightYou’ll play the fool and learn how to walk through doorsHow to enter into the gates of paradise? NO,How to carry a burden too heavy to be yours

I'm not sure if I make too much of this song or too little, but I like hearing it every now and then and that's about it. Some say it's one of his better efforts of the era, I sometimes get the feeling he doesn't know what he's talking about any more than others do (I often get the opposite feeling - that he knows exactly what he's talking about even when others don't, be that real or imagined on my part). Anyway, it sure feaures some good spitting out of words, as mentioned above.

A tricky one to transcribe - I think it's bring you down bankrupt - or maybe bankrobbed - rather than main route. I also think it's your love me till the mornin' stranger not the ya love me to the moon and a stranger that the official lyrics has. Also, I think it's head face down in a plane or maybe - and it would rhyme - plate; it's certainly not the grave the official lyrics gives us.

Definitely "head face down in the plate"--it's the only phrase that makes sense in context, and on the minimal take with no overdubbed guitar this is clearly what he sings.

As long as he had a cheat sheet and an oxygen tank handy, he could probably manage this in concert--it has little melody and could be spoken. But it's a long, meandering song, and I doubt he has the lung power or memory to get through it any more in its original form.

Cool : I had hoped it was plate but had a feeling he may have been referring back to the plane crash, but Michael Gray certainly thinks it's a fate/plate accompli as well. It'd be nice to hear the unencumbered take, and hopefully that makes it clear it's betrayal instead of betrayed in the first verse, but in that instance I do think he eschews the rhyme. From Heylin : apparently Dylan said "The reason it was never used was becasue the tempo speeded up ... for some strange and curious reason", although he did give it 44 takes! Tantalizingly, it also "had a bunch of extra verses" according to Bob. This is another of those songs Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds would set ablaze.

Joined: Tue December 29th, 2009, 19:10 GMTPosts: 1387Location: Hard Times in New York Town

hmm. I always heard "if you don't mind sleeping with your head face down in the flame." Amazing how we can all hear the words differently and yet all agree that its one of his most interestingly written songs!

This is definitely an "unlikely favorite" of mine-- when I first heard it, my response was similar to the one described above: what the fck does THIS mean!?? But the rhythm is infectious and the singing is just mind blowing, definitely kept me coming back to it. Then when you break down (what you can make of) the lyrics, you realize just how powerful and biting it really is. A real lion of a song.

hmm. I always heard "if you don't mind sleeping with your head face down in the flame." Amazing how we can all hear the words differently and yet all agree that its one of his most interestingly written songs!

This is definitely an "unlikely favorite" of mine-- when I first heard it, my response was similar to the one described above: what the fck does THIS mean!?? But the rhythm is infectious and the singing is just mind blowing, definitely kept me coming back to it. Then when you break down (what you can make of) the lyrics, you realize just how powerful and biting it really is. A real lion of a song.

The song is red and gold for me.

Wow! When I first heard it I thought it was "head face down in a grave!" Amazing is right! Can you imagine how different we would have thought of Infidels if this, Blind Willie, Need A Woman & Angelina were on it! Good Heavens!

hmm. I always heard "if you don't mind sleeping with your head face down in the flame." Amazing how we can all hear the words differently and yet all agree that its one of his most interestingly written songs!

This is definitely an "unlikely favorite" of mine-- when I first heard it, my response was similar to the one described above: what the fck does THIS mean!?? But the rhythm is infectious and the singing is just mind blowing, definitely kept me coming back to it. Then when you break down (what you can make of) the lyrics, you realize just how powerful and biting it really is. A real lion of a song.

The song is red and gold for me.

Wow! When I first heard it I thought it was "head face down in a grave!" Amazing is right! Can you imagine how different we would have thought of Infidels if this, Blind Willie, Need A Woman & Angelina were on it! Good Heavens!

I know, right? Amazing!

This has long been one of my faves. I've been listening to it a lot lately. But the first line always bugs me. It comes of as incredibly misogynistic, and jesus'y in all the ugly ways.

Wow! When I first heard it I thought it was "head face down in a grave!" Amazing is right! Can you imagine how different we would have thought of Infidels if this, Blind Willie, Need A Woman & Angelina were on it! Good Heavens!

I know, right? Amazing!

This has long been one of my faves. I've been listening to it a lot lately. But the first line always bugs me. It comes of as incredibly misogynistic, and jesus'y in all the ugly ways.

Well' it's a 'jesus'y' song. And it's ridiculous to critique a song like this in the post-modern fashion via a feminist prism.

Who is online

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum